Japanese air bag manufacturer Takata Corp is doubling a recall of potentially deadly air bags to nearly 34 million vehicles, making it the largest automotive recall in US history, US safety regulators said on Tuesday.
The recall involves passenger and driver-side air bag inflators in vehicles made by 11 automakers, the US Department of Transportation, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Takata said. It expands on the 16.6 million vehicles called back for repairs for the same issue in previous regional and national recalls, and boosts the number of vehicles affected globally since 2008 to more than 53 million.
Regulators on Tuesday linked six deaths worldwide to defective Takata air bags which exploded too violently and shot shrapnel into the vehicles.
Photo: AFP
“We are pleased to have reached this agreement with NHTSA, which represents a clear path forward,” Takata CEO Shigehisa Takada said in a statement.
The company declined to say whether markets outside the US would be affected.
It was only under pressure from US regulators that Takata agreed to the expanded recall. It had previously resisted expanding the recalls, saying the defect cited by automakers was not “officially recognized.”
Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co and Honda Motor Co had expanded their Takata recalls over the past week.
The automakers have said they decided to proceed with their recalls after finding some Takata air bag inflators were not sealed properly, allowing moisture to seep in to the propellant casing. Moisture damages the propellant and can lead to an inflator exploding with too much force.
Takata’s recall will cost it and its automaker customers an estimated US$4 billion to US$5 billion, said Scott Upham, president of Valient Market Research, which tracks the air bag industry.
US Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx said NHTSA also issued a consent order to Takata, requiring the supplier to cooperate in the safety agency’s probe as well as any oversight.
NHTSA also said it will “organize and prioritize the replacement of defective Takata inflators” under its legal authority. This is the first time the agency has used this power since 2000, when Congress granted it under the TREAD Act.
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